E 241 
.T7 N5 
Copy 1 



MESSAGE 



RELATIVE TO A 



" Washington's Crossing Commission " 



SUBMITTED BY 



THE GOVERNOR TO THE LEGISLATURE 



FEBRUARY 7th, 1910 



TRENTON, N. J. 
MacCrellish & QuiCLEY, State Pbikters. 

1910 



la-3o:L;L^^ 



MESSAGE 



RELATIVE TO A 



« 99 



" Washington's Crossing Commission 



SUBMITTED BY 



THE GOVERNOR TO THE LEGISLATURE 



FEBRUARY 7th, 1910 



TRENTON. N. J. 
MacCrelush & QuiGLEY, State Printers. 

1910 






0' Of D. 



-i 



Trenton, N. J., February 7th, 1910. 
To the Legislature: 

At a very large and enthusiastic meeting held at Taylor Opera 
House, in the City of Trenton, on the twelfth day of October 
last, a series of resolutions were passed, requesting the Governor 
to name a Commission of citizens from the State to consider 
the feasibility of establishing either a park or some monument to 
properly commemorate the point on the Delaware River above 
Trenton known as Washington's Crossing. Following these 
resolutions came much individual approval from citizens in all 
parts of the State. 

Acting upon these requests, I named thirty-nine gentlemen 
to take the matter intO' consideration and further the patriotic 
project if, in their judgment, it could be carried to success. The 
persons named were : 

Honorable Frank O. Briggs, Trenton. 

Honorable Ira W. Wood, Trenton. 

Honorable Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Raritan. 

Honorable John D. Prince, Ringwood. 

Honorable William M. Lanning, Trenton. 

General Wilbur F. Sadler, Trenton. 

Prof. Henry D. Thompson, Princeton. 

Mr. Moses Taylor Pyne, Princeton. 

Colonel William Libbey, Princeton. 

Mr. Bayard Stockton, Princeton. 

Plonorable G. D. W. Vroom, Trenton. 

Prof. W. H. S. Demarest, New Brunswick. 

Honorable Bennett VanSyckel, Trenton. 

Rt. Rev. James A. McFaul, Trenton. 

Rev. Henry Collin Minton, Trenton. 

Rev. J. Morgan Read, Pennington. 

Rev. Holmes F. Gravatt, Camden. 

Mr. Henry W. Green, Trenton. 

Honorable Charles J. Fisk, Plainfield. 

(3) 



Honorable Edward S. Atwater, Elizabeth. 

Mr. William Pennington, Newark. 

Mr. George R. Howe, Newark. 

Mr. Wallace M. Scudder, Newark. 

Mr. James Kerney, Trenton. 

Mr. Matt C. Ely, Hoboken. 

Mr. Joseph A. Dear, Jersey City. 

Mr. James F. Connolly, Newark. 

Mr. Francis B. Lee, Trenton. 

Mr. Andrew W. Bray, Newark. 

Mr. William L. Doyle, Trenton. 

Mr. John J. Hickey, Bayonne. 

Mr. John Cuthbridge Gillespie, Moorestown. 

Mr. Harry G. Stoddard, Trenton. 

Rev. Louis Shreve Osborne, Newark. 

Mr. James C. Tattersall, Trenton. 

Honorable Alfred Elmer Mills, Morristown. 

Hon. John J. Matthews, High Bridge. 

Mr. James H. VanCleef, New Brunswick. 

Honorable Frank S. Katzenbach, Jr., Trenton. 
On the ninth day of November they met in the Executive 
Reception Room at the Capitol, and organized by the selection 
of the Honorable Frank O. Briggs as chairman, Honorable 
Charles J. Fisk as vice-chainnan, Colonel William Libbey as 
secretary', and Mr. William L. Doyle as treasurer; subsequently 
an executive committee was named. Meetings have been held, 
and the Commission now feel that some plan of the kind contem- 
plated is practical. 

At the last meeting of the Commission, a request was made 
of the Governor that he ask the Legislature to give the move- 
ment official standing. This suggestion meets with my approval, 
and I recommend that a joint resolution be passed, authorizing 
the appointment of a "Washington's Crossing Commiission," 
that they may take up the matter with the Federal Congress, 
with the authority of the State as the basis of their action. When 
the joint resolution shall be adopted, the same gentlemen can 
be appointed under it as a State Commission and prosecute their 
public-spirited work with greater assurance of success. Much, 



of course, of the work will be done by private subscription and 
effort, but this should not militate in any way against the State 
recognition and support which such a patriotic purpose so 
eminently deserves. 

Respectfully submitted, 

JOHN FRANKLIN FORT, 

Governor. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 800 189 8 



